New nuggettech coil 18"x15"

When in Perth recently I called into PP on Gt Eastern Hwy and was looking for a new coil for my 5000. I bought a 17x11 at reeds at a good price and wondered into PP for a look and saw he sold those nuggetech coils which I read werent all that good and after seeing a youtube video on comparing a nugget tech and nugget finder at 14" deep on some nice nuggets up to 3oz in the side of a creek bed I thought I would stay away from them. Well I spoke to Jamie at PP and he said that they did have a problem with them in that the outer sheild was being cut during assembly when fitting the plugs and this was the cause of them getting problems. He informed me that they were now using litz wire and some new coax he had sourced from the USA and had just done some field testing and another older fella that was associated in some way to their business who was there said he got 230mm extra distance from a proto type that they had been working on so I thought hmm!!! Not to question their technical skills, they also told me that their coils will run with a higher gain compared to others but to me this dosnt necessarily mean that theirs is better as could also mean that theyre not as sensitive and need a higher gain to achieve the sensitivity, so correct me if I'm wrong here. What they also do now is wind the litz wire on a jig first, then the finished coil is cable tied neatly to form, before being removed. It is then placed into a cutout on the underside foam section before being heat glued into place where the others are wound in the foam on the outside edge. Dont know if that makes a difference or not but being wound on a jig first makes sense for perhaps better quality control of the litz wire lay. They also use a printed circuit board to join the coil lead to the new type of coax before putting it all together. Having an electrical back ground, Jamie showed me a litz wire coil that they had just wound and was ready to go into an 18x15 frame which was to be the first one sold to the public so I told him that if the price was right I would give it a go and if it wasnt any good I would bring it back. He said it would come with a lifetime warranty so I thought what the heck. Now Im no guru on these but was impressed also with the quality of the outer casing compared to others as it feels more robust and the only flaw I found was I had to file the 2 little round steps where the lower shaft contacts the coil and make it flat like other manafacturers and insert some rubber spacers as I had to tighten the plastic bolts excessively to get a firm hold, minor problem but now fixed. Anyhow having only used minelab coils in the past and not wanting to get into spending a bloody fortune on coils which is an easy trap I thought I'd give this one a go so hopefully I will be able to do a side by side comparison with the nugget finder and if it dosnt perform better than the NF then its going back. As soon as I get it out and test it I will report back to see if there is another option for us to consider or not either way. Stay tuned

G'day bikehe. Welcome to the Forum

Very interesting. Looking forward to the test results and how it compares to the Nugget Finders.

Cheers for the info. kon61.